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Pictured:  The White Stripes, made out of string? Getting Fat?

Who would’ve thought that for the next White Stripes album it’d sound like a political rally run by the guys who invented Guitar Hero?  Ok, yeah, we all did.  Who would’ve thought that Jack White would be walking around in the first video in a sort-of-gay looking version of a migrant worker outfit?  Yes, we all did.  Who would’ve thought that Meg White’s drums would sound amazing?  Anybody?  I guess the White Stripes still have a few tricks up their red, sequined sleeves. 

Icky Thump is a rather large departure for the White Stripes.  Ok, yes it’s still riff based rock, and yes listening to it enough times makes you feel like you just drank a warm mountain dew at a friend’s house at 11 in the morning, but there’s still plenty of new stuff to be excited about.  There are reverse tape loops, there’s organ all over the album, and huge drums.  Huge, huge, huge drums.  Whatever they did, it makes Meg White sound like a souless, hulking brute.  Sort of like a real life version of that drummer from The Gorillaz.  It’s awesome. 

 Yes, there are throwaway tracks.  The biggest being the very odd, “Conquest” Which starts off amazingly, with crazy mexican trumpets and then goes… absolutely nowhere.  It’s no where near the masterpiece that “White Blood Cells” was, but does it have to be?  These songs rock, and basically that’s all that most stoners are going to care about in the end anyway. 

 Here’s Icky Thump if the rest of your internet/tv/radio/phone is broken and by some magic way you haven’t heard this single yet.